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Orient Thai resumes Phuket-Korea flights
BANGKOK: Orient Thai Airlines has resumed flights between South Korea and Phuket after suspending them after the tsunami.Orient Thai Airlines Chairman Udom Tantiprasongchai told the Gazette that the service has resumed with two flights a week – on Saturdays and Tuesdays.He added that, by March, the airline hopes to have flights up to their pre-tsunami frequency of four a week.Two…
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Putting the boot in for a good cause
PHUKET CITY: Thai Cabinet ministers led by freshly reelected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will face ambassadors from 38 countries during a friendly soccer match at Surakul Stadium on February 26.The event is intended to help Phuket recover as a tourist destination after the tsunami.Admission is free, and the match is due to be broadcast nationwide by Thai TV station TV5.The…
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Tsunami volunteers warned: get work permits
PHUKET: Foreign volunteers assisting in tsunami-related charity work are required to hold work permits, regardless of whether they are being paid for their efforts or not. Sayan Chuaiyjan, head of the Phuket Provincial Employment Service Office [ESO], told the Gazette yesterday that there could be no exceptions and that his office would begin to enforce the regulations soon – possibly…
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Tennis superstar Hingis visits Patong
PATONG: Former world number one tennis player Martina Hingis was moved to tears today as she heard about Phuket children’s experiences in the tsunami.The tennis star visited the kindergarten of Patong Municipality School while on a whistle-stop tour of Phuket, arranged by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to promote tourism after the tsunami.After meeting the children – and hearing…
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Top Unicef official checks on progress
PHUKET: The Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), Carol Bellamy, has been to Phuket and Phang Nga to see what is being done to help children recover from the tsunami.Unicef officers were sent to Phang Nga and Phuket within a week of the tsunami, said Ms Bellamy, and since then, Unicef has supported Thai government efforts to…
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Porntip slams “autocrats’
PHUKET: Dr Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan has rounded on “the autocrats” she says have forced her to close the mortuary at Wat Yan Yao, Phang Nga, where she and her team had been working to identify victims of the tsunami.The work has now been transferred to Phuket, to the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification Centre (TTVI), headed by Pol Gen Nopadol Soomboonsub.Dr…
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TAT blitz “helping to change perceptions’
PHUKET: Tour operators and journalists from eastern Europe have changed their perceptions of post-tsunami Phuket after seeing the effects for themselves, Suwalai Pinpradab, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office in Phuket has told the Gazette.“The journalists have been to Krabi, too,” said K. Suwalai. “They were very surprised to see Phi Phi Island, and Maya Bay, and…
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Linkin Park star visits Bang Tao
PHUKET: Chester Bennington, the lead singer of Californian band Linkin Park, visited Bang Tao beach today to see for himself the damage caused by the tsunami.Bennington was in Phuket to record material to be broadcast by MTV in the USA, as part of a global campaign to raise money for tsunami victims.After lunch at the Banyan Tree, Bennington and his…
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Phummisak challenges Gov over water supplies
PHUKET: Former Phuket City Mayor and tin mine owner Phummisak Hongsyok has dismissed Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura’s assertion that he will use the law to force owners of private water resources to share them with the province if there is a water shortage this year.K. Phummisak, who owns two flooded former tin mines with a total capacity of three million cubic…
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WTO Phuket action plan adopted
KATA: A multi-point Phuket Action Plan drawn up by the Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) to speed the recovery of Phuket’s battered tourism industry has been accepted by a WTO Emergency Session that drew togther representatives from 40 countries.The multi-point plan, approved during the session held yesterday and today at the Kata Beach Hotel, contains the following…
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F1 powerboat race postponed to March 2006
PHUKET: The Formula One powerboat race scheduled to take place next month in Ao Makham has been postponed for a year.Kata Group Chairman Pamuke Archariyachai told the Gazette today that a combination of the tsunami and the Cabinet’s slowness in approving funds to support the event had forced the decision to postpone until March 2006.“We had only a short time…
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Vehicle rental ban stays – Bhokin
PATONG: Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula is adamant that vehicle rental businesses will be barred from Thaveewong Rd, despite a 300-vehicle rally yesterday by owners of rental businesses opposed to the ban.Speaking at Provincial Hall this morning, K. Bhokin added that the restoration of Patong Beach would go ahead in line with plans drawn up by the Tourism Authority of Thailand…
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Entertainment licence fees in limbo
PHUKET CITY: Wisut Romin, Deputy Secretary of the Phuket Provincial Administration Office, has hinted that licence fees may be waived for entertainment businesses damaged by the tsunami.K. Wisut told the Gazette today that the office had yet to receive details of the new fees – originally due to be announced in December 2004 by the Department of Local Administration.He said,…
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100,000 candles light up Patong Beach
PATONG: The beach here was a blaze of flickering light last night when some 10,000 people joined the “Light Up Patong” ceremony, lighting 100,000 candles along the three-kilometer length of the beach.The event was organized by the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization and attended by 33 delegates to the World Travel Organization Executive Council extraordinary meeting, being held in Phuket yesterday…
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We need B700m immediately – Pian
PHUKET CITY: Patong Mayor Pian Keesin has urged the government to approve immediately funding of 700 million baht to improve Patong Beach, in line with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)’s draft plan for reconstructing the resort.Mayor Pian told Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, during his recent visit to Phuket, that Patong was the worst-affected of all the tsunami-hit places on…
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Rental vehicle operators in mass protest
PATONG: Operators of vehicle rental businesses have staged a rally with more than 300 cars and large motorbikes to protest Patong Municipality’s plans to ban them from the beach road as part of the post-tsunami clean-up.The operators, some of whom carried placards stating, “Better to have died in the tsunami than live with a dictatorial government”, demanded that, if the…
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3,000 Burmese “still missing’ in Phang Nga alone
PHUKET: One month after the tsunami, more than 3,000 Burmese workers in Phang Nga are still unaccounted for, a seminar was told yesterday.The meeting, arranged by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the international NGO, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), heard that many Burmese are still hiding atop hills and in rubber plantations in the province – often in bad conditions –…
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Suwat outlines tourism recovery plans
PHUKET CITY: Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop believes that marketing and rehabilitation of sites popular with tourists will be the keys to the recovery of the tourism industry along Thailand’s Andaman Sea coast.DPM Suwat, responsible for overseeing the recovery of the tourism industry in the Andaman region in the wake of the December 26 tsunami disaster, was reporting during a…
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Flowers for remembrance
KHAO LAK: At a solemn ceremony in the now calm waters some five miles off Khao Lak, the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) aircraft carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebeth led a flotilla of nine other RTN vessels to place wreaths on the water for those lost in the tsunami of December 26.The German, British, Swedish and Singaporean ambassadors to Thailand, as well…
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German town donates B1m to Kalim School
PATONG: The citizens of the small German town of Bad Rappenau – population 20,500 – have donated 1 million baht to help rebuild Baan Kalim School, which was badly damaged by the December 26 tsunami.On January 28, Heiko Schmidt, owner of Baan Suan Villa in Patong, who is originally from Bad Rappenau, handed over a check in that amount to…
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Charity tsunami photo book on sale
PHUKET: A special joint publication of The Nation and The Phuket Gazette entitled 26.12.04: Wrath Of The Tsunami is on sale now at bookstores across Thailand and from all regular Gazette distribution agents. All net proceeds from the 48-page full-color photo memoir, priced at only 90 baht, will be donated to charities aiding tsunami victims and their families. A copy…
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We’re doing our best to help – Thaksin
PHUKET CITY: PM Thaksin arrived in Phuket yesterday morning to hear complaints by Phuket residents about the government’s handling of the tsunami disaster.The meeting, held at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, was attended by some 500 people, including Cabinet ministers and scores of other government officials. The Cabinet ministers reported on the progress of the various relief programs assigned to…
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Singaporean airlines offer Phuket deals
PHUKET: A couple of days after THAI Airways angered the tourism industry by abruptly dropping all of its flights from Singapore to Phuket, airlines in Singapore are doing precisely the opposite, by offering special deals to travellers.In a joint promotion with selected hotels in Phuket, Krabi and Langkawi, SilkAir is offering travellers special-value packages to these holiday destinations, valid until…
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Samui speedboat crash toll rises to 14
KOH SAMUI: Rescue services have today recovered a further seven bodies from the waters around Koh Samui, bringing the official number of dead following Tuesday morning’s speedboat crash to 14. Pol Cpl Pongkasem Thanawanitnam, Koh Samui Police Station spokesman, told the Gazette that there are now two people still posted as missing.Koh Samui Hospital gave the names and nationalities of…
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Help offered for coping with tsunami trauma
PHUKET: Two psychotherapists, Dr Victor Adam from Singapore and David Foster, a Phuket-based Englishman, are to conduct free group sessions to help those in Thailand traumatized by the tsunami. The sessions are expected to begin on February 2. The owner of a house on the Loch Palm Golf Course has generously offered the use of it as a venue for…
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Phuket to host tsunami warning meeting
PHUKET: Representatives from more than 40 countries are expected to take part in the Ministerial Meeting on Regional Cooperation on Tsunami Early Warning Arrangements to be held at the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa on Friday and Saturday.Organizations expected to take part include the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, the United Nations Special Coordinator for Tsunami Relief, the Economic and…
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Tsunami bodies arrive in Mai Khao
TAH CHAT CHAI: Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula and Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura today visited Mai Khao Cemetery, to which the bodies of foreigners who died in the December 26 tsunami are being moved for identification and repatriation.The mass transfer of tsunami victim corpses from Phang Nga to Mai Khao Cemetery, at the north end of the island, began yesterday with…
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Search continues for 16 missing in speedboat smash
KOH SAMUI: Police have identified five of the people who drowned between Koh Samui and Koh Pha-Ngan after the speedboat they were in sank in the early hours of yesterday morning.The search continues for another 16 people who have been reported as missing by family or friends.Police are not, however, discounting the possibility that some of the missing might have…
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THAI slashes Phuket flights
PHUKET: Thai Airways – whose website ironically announces “THAI’s Full Support On Tsunami Aftermath” – confirmed today that it is making drastic cuts to both domestic and international routes serving Phuket, with effect from February 1.However, the airline’s District Sales Manager for Upper-Southern Thailand, Kalayapha Panich, told the Gazette today that although the carrier would suspend all international flights serving…
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Loungers recolonize Patong Beach
PATONG : In another sign that things are returning to normal, Patong Municipality is allowing beach lounger rental operators to begin limited re-colonization of the tsunami-swept sands of Phuket’s most popular beach. The move follows a request by the Municipality to the central government to allow a limited number of beach loungers, arguing that the government’s plan to ban them…
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